[ar-nelson]

FreeBSD jails don't have a one-command way to install a preconfigured jail for a specific service. And they don't have a way (that I know of) to write a config file describing a bunch of jails and services, then run that file and install all of those services on a new machine.

Docker is less elegant than jails in a lot of ways, but not having to figure out how to install each service on your own is a huge advantage.

I tried using Ansible to set all of my services up, and it really didn't work. Probably because I was using a different machine as the Ansible controller, and there is no Ansible plugin to connect to jails on a remote machine. I tried writing my own, and it just barely worked, but with a lot of bugs I could never fully track down (because Ansible's internals aren't documented at all). Eventually it just wasn't worth it to keep trying to use FreeBSD.

[craftkiller]

> FreeBSD jails don't have a one-command way to install a preconfigured jail for a specific service

FreeBSD does have that tool, its BastilleBSD: https://bastillebsd.org/

For example, this is the Bastillefile for running consul: https://gitlab.com/bastillebsd-templates/consul/-/blob/maste...

> And they don't have a way (that I know of) to write a config file describing a bunch of jails and services, then run that file and install all of those services on a new machine

Sounds like you want to use pot with nomad: https://klarasystems.com/articles/cluster-provisioning-with-...

[tcmart14]

To add on, CBSD may also provide of these functions. So there are options.

[1] https://github.com/cbsd/cbsd

[stonogo]

It has both, but like Docker, they don't ship in base. ezjail was the tool of choice for many years, and cbsd (which also manages the virtualization capabilities) has emerged as a mature replacement for the past decade or so.

I'm not disagreeing with your assessment -- nobody knows better than you which software you want to use! -- so much as listing options for anyone reading.

But I find it interesting how far ahead of its time FreeBSD was on this, and how badly it appears to have fumbled this ball. The official documentation still recommends ezjail, which is not good. Just another example, I guess, of "writing the code isn't enough."

[Gud]

What’s wrong with ezjail? I still use it, works great